Sound in outer space
Sound in outer space
- Contrary to the popular belief that there is no sound in space, it exists
Part of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. Even the brightest galaxies in this image have an apparent magnitude of 22. http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2004/07/image/d/ Centered on UDF 8026
Contrary to the popular belief that there is no sound in space, it exists (Parra, 2012), it is not audible, but there are infrasound waves since space is not totally empty. There are different types of gases, much less dense than the terrestrial atmosphere and allow the propagation of sound, in outer space we would hardly find two atoms per cubic centimeter.
Lloyd and Mitchinson explain in The Second Book General of Ignorance (2012), that even being close to a cloud of interstellar gas, the atoms that would reach our eardrums would be so few, we could not hear anything. They also emphasize that perhaps some ultrasensitive microphone could become capable of capturing these vibrations, but the human ear is really deaf to this phenomenon.
As these sounds do not capture, this means that they are below 20 Hz, these sounds not captured by us are what we call infrasound. As a curiosity, the deepest note ever detected is in B flat and generated by a black hole. It is 57 octaves more serious than a half do: more than a billion times more serious than the limits of the human ear.
References:
Lloyd, J. y Mitchinson, J. (2012). The Second Book General of Ignorance [El nuevo peque帽o gran libro de la ignorancia]. Barcelona: Paidos.
Lloyd and Mitchinson explain in The Second Book General of Ignorance (2012), that even being close to a cloud of interstellar gas, the atoms that would reach our eardrums would be so few, we could not hear anything. They also emphasize that perhaps some ultrasensitive microphone could become capable of capturing these vibrations, but the human ear is really deaf to this phenomenon.
As these sounds do not capture, this means that they are below 20 Hz, these sounds not captured by us are what we call infrasound. As a curiosity, the deepest note ever detected is in B flat and generated by a black hole. It is 57 octaves more serious than a half do: more than a billion times more serious than the limits of the human ear.
Lloyd, J. y Mitchinson, J. (2012). The Second Book General of Ignorance [El nuevo peque帽o gran libro de la ignorancia]. Barcelona: Paidos.
Parra, S. (2012). "En realidad, en el espacio s铆 que puede o铆rse algo. ¿Cu谩l es la nota m谩s profunda detectada en el universo?". En Xataka Ciencia. Recuperado de https://www.xatakaciencia.com/astronomia/en-realidad-en-el-espacio-si-que-puede-oirse-algo-cual-es-la-nota-mas-profunda-detectada-en-el-universo
How to cite this article:
Nocetti, F.A. (2014). "Sound in outer space". In NabbuBlog. Retrieved from http://nabbublog.blogspot.com/2014/08/sound-in-outer-space.html